Topsoil Calculator
How much topsoil do you need? Enter your area and depth to get cubic yards, tons, and bags — topsoil is usually ordered by the ton.
Enter a bulk price to estimate cost.
Add this to compare bulk delivery vs. buying bags.
You need
1.48≈ tons
- Cubic feet
- 33.3 cu ft
- Cubic yards
- 1.23 cu yd
- Bags (0.75 cu ft)
- 45 bags
- Bags (40 lb)
- 45 bags
- Weight
- ≈ 1.48 tons
Bulk is sold by the yard — order 1.25 cu yd to have enough.
Shop what you need
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Who needs a topsoil calculator
This tool is for anyone laying new topsoil over an existing yard or bed: filling in low spots before overseeding, building up a thin lawn, topping off a garden bed, or prepping a new planting area. Enter your area and how deep you want the layer, and it converts that to cubic yards, tons, and bag counts — the three units suppliers and bag labels actually use.
How much topsoil do I need?
The math is area times depth, converted to cubic yards. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so the formula is: (length ft × width ft × depth in inches ÷ 12) ÷ 27. The calculator does this for you, but it helps to see it worked out.
Example: a 20 ft × 15 ft bed (300 sq ft) at 4 inches deep. Convert depth to feet: 4 ÷ 12 = 0.33 ft. Volume: 300 × 0.33 = 100 cubic feet. Cubic yards: 100 ÷ 27 ≈ 3.7 yards. At roughly 1.2 tons per yard for screened topsoil, that's about 4.4 tons — round up when you order, since running short means a second delivery.
Bulk vs. bagged topsoil
Bagged topsoil (40 lb bags, 0.75 cu ft each) takes 36 bags to equal one cubic yard. Do the math on a mid-size job and bags get expensive fast: filling the 3.7-yard example above would take around 133 bags, plus the trips to haul them.
Bulk topsoil, delivered by the cubic yard, typically costs less per yard once you're past 2–3 cubic yards of need — many yards and landscape suppliers deliver a minimum load (often 1–3 yards) for a flat fee that already beats buying that much in bags. The trade-off is you need somewhere for a dump truck to drop a pile, and you'll spread it yourself or pay for spreading.
Enter your local bulk price per yard and bagged price per bag in the calculator above to see the actual cost comparison for your job, not just a rule of thumb — the numbers shift by region and by how much you need.
Rule of thumb: under about 1 cubic yard (a few bags' worth — small beds, potting, patch jobs), bags are usually easier and not much pricier once you account for delivery minimums. Above 2–3 cubic yards, bulk is almost always cheaper and less physical work per yard moved.
Topsoil weight by volume
Weight matters as much as volume once you're ordering topsoil, because delivery trucks have load limits and some suppliers price or restrict orders by the ton rather than the yard. One cubic yard of dry, screened topsoil weighs roughly 2,000–2,200 lb, or about 1.0–1.1 US tons — that's the range the calculator's 1.2 tons/yard estimate is built around, padded slightly for moisture.
These are ranges, not fixed numbers, because topsoil composition varies. A load that's been rained on, or that's naturally clay-heavy, can easily run 2,400 lb or more per yard — sometimes 20% heavier than a dry, sandy mix. If you're close to a truck's weight limit or working out per-ton delivery pricing, ask your supplier for their actual weight per yard rather than relying on a general average.
| Cubic yards | Weight range (lb) | Weight range (tons) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cubic yard | 2,000–2,200 lb | 1.0–1.1 tons |
| 2 cubic yards | 4,000–4,400 lb | 2.0–2.2 tons |
| 3 cubic yards | 6,000–6,600 lb | 3.0–3.3 tons |
| 5 cubic yards | 10,000–11,000 lb | 5.0–5.5 tons |
| 10 cubic yards | 20,000–22,000 lb | 10.0–11.0 tons |
Bottom line: budget about 1 ton per yard, and expect wet or clay-heavy soil to run higher.
Coverage by depth (per cubic yard)
A cubic yard is a fixed volume — 27 cubic feet — but how much ground it covers depends entirely on how deep you spread it. The formula is simple: divide 27 by the depth in feet. So for a 3-inch layer (3 ÷ 12 = 0.25 ft), one yard covers 27 ÷ 0.25 = 108 sq ft. Go thinner and the same yard stretches further; go deeper and it covers less.
Use this table to sanity-check the calculator's output or to plan how many yards to order for a given bed size and depth, without doing the division yourself each time. In practice, most people apply topsoil as a loose range rather than an exact depth — "about 3 inches" — but the coverage math itself is exact once you settle on a target depth.
| Depth | Coverage (per 1 cu yd) |
|---|---|
| 1 inch | 324 sq ft |
| 2 inches | 162 sq ft |
| 3 inches | 108 sq ft |
| 4 inches | 81 sq ft |
| 6 inches | 54 sq ft |
Bottom line: doubling the depth halves the coverage — plan your order around your target depth, not just your square footage.
40 lb bags to cubic feet — and bags per cubic yard
A standard 40 lb bag of topsoil is sold as 0.75 cubic feet (that's 40 ÷ 0.75 ≈ 53.3 lb per cubic foot) — the size printed on national brands like Timberline's 40 lb All-Purpose Top Soil. Some brands compact or moisten theirs slightly differently, so treat 0.75 cu ft as the standard rather than an exact universal number, and check your bag's label when you can.
At 0.75 cu ft per bag, it takes exactly 36 bags to equal one cubic yard (27 ÷ 0.75 = 36). The calculator's bag-size chips include 0.75, 1, 1.5, and 2 cu ft, plus a dedicated 40 lb bag count in the results, so you can compare brands without doing the conversion by hand.
| Bag size | Bags per cubic yard |
|---|---|
| 40 lb bag (0.75 cu ft) | 36 bags |
| 0.75 cu ft bag | 36 bags |
| 1 cu ft bag | 27 bags |
| 1.5 cu ft bag | 18 bags |
| 2 cu ft bag | 14 bags (13.5, rounded up) |
Bottom line: a 40 lb bag = 0.75 cu ft = 36 bags per cubic yard — use that to compare bagged and bulk pricing.
How far does one ton of topsoil cover?
Suppliers that price and deliver by the ton use the same coverage math as cubic yards, just converted through the calculator's ≈1.2 tons-per-yard estimate first: 1 ton ≈ 0.83 cubic yards ≈ 22.5 cubic feet. Divide that by your target depth (in feet) to get square feet covered.
Like the per-yard weight, this shifts with moisture and soil mix, so use it to size an order, then confirm the exact tons-per-yard figure with your supplier before a large delivery.
| Depth | Coverage (per 1 ton) |
|---|---|
| 2 inches | 135 sq ft |
| 4 inches | 67.5 sq ft |
| 6 inches | 45 sq ft |
Bottom line: 1 ton of topsoil covers about 135 sq ft at 2 inches, or 45 sq ft at 6 inches.
Cubic feet to cubic yards conversion
Topsoil gets measured in both units depending on where you're buying it: bag labels and small-scale calculations use cubic feet, while bulk delivery is almost always priced and ordered by the cubic yard. The conversion is fixed — 1 cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet — so moving between them is just multiplying or dividing by 27.
This table covers the conversions that come up most often when sizing an order, in both directions. If your project works out to an odd number of cubic feet, round up to the nearest bag or the nearest quarter yard when ordering bulk, so a small shortfall doesn't turn into a second trip.
| Cubic yards | Cubic feet |
|---|---|
| 1 yd | 27 cu ft |
| 2 yd | 54 cu ft |
| 3 yd | 81 cu ft |
| 5 yd | 135 cu ft |
| 10 yd | 270 cu ft |
| 0.33 yd | 9 cu ft |
| 0.5 yd | 13.5 cu ft |
Bottom line: when in doubt, multiply cubic feet by 27 to get yards, or divide yards by 27 to get cubic feet.
How it's calculated
- 1
Measure the area
Enter length and width in feet, or type the total square footage.
- 2
Set the depth
New lawns usually need 4–6 inches; presets are 2, 4, and 6 inches.
- 3
Read tons and yards
We multiply cubic yards by ≈1.2 tons per yard (screened topsoil) so you can order in bulk, and also show bag counts.
Frequently asked questions
How many yards of topsoil do I need?
Multiply your area (sq ft) by the depth (inches) and divide by 324 — that's the same as area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, just combined into one step. The calculator does this and rounds up to the nearest quarter yard so you don't come up short on delivery day. For a 500 sq ft area at 3 inches, that's 500 × 3 ÷ 324 ≈ 4.6 yards, rounded up to 4.75.
How much does a yard of topsoil weigh?
Screened topsoil runs roughly 2,000–2,200 lb (about 1–1.1 tons) per cubic yard dry, and the calculator uses 1.2 tons/yard to stay on the safe side, since wet or clay-heavy soil weighs noticeably more — sometimes 2,400+ lb per yard after rain. Ask your supplier for their actual weight per yard before ordering a large amount, since it affects delivery truck limits and cost if they price by the ton.
Topsoil vs garden soil vs fill dirt?
Topsoil is native soil that's been screened to remove rocks and debris — decent for filling and leveling, but usually low in organic matter on its own. Garden soil is topsoil blended with compost or other amendments specifically for planting, so it costs more but performs better in beds. Fill dirt is unscreened subsoil, the cheapest option, meant purely for grading and leveling under hardscape or where nothing needs to grow — it's often low in nutrients and can contain rocks or clay.
How deep should I lay topsoil for a new lawn?
4–6 inches is the standard range for a new lawn from seed or sod, enough to give roots room to establish. If you're topping off an existing lawn to fix low spots or thin turf, 0.5–1 inch worked in lightly is plenty — more than that can smother the existing grass.
How many cubic feet are in a 40 lb bag of topsoil?
A 40 lb bag of topsoil is sold as 0.75 cubic feet (40 ÷ 0.75 ≈ 53.3 lb per cubic foot) — that's the size on national brands like Timberline's 40 lb All-Purpose Top Soil. It takes 36 of those bags to equal one cubic yard. The calculator shows a live 40 lb bag count alongside cubic-foot bag sizes.
How far does 1 ton of topsoil cover?
At roughly 1.2 tons per cubic yard, 1 ton is about 0.83 cubic yards (22.5 cubic feet). Divide that by your depth in feet to get coverage: about 135 sq ft at 2 inches deep, or 45 sq ft at 6 inches deep. Actual coverage shifts with your supplier's exact density, so treat this as a planning estimate.
Can I mix bagged and bulk topsoil?
Yes — a common approach is ordering bulk for the bulk of the job and picking up a few bags to top off a gap or reach a spot the delivery truck can't access. Just keep the depth consistent across the area; mismatched fill can settle unevenly.